Interview

Bould - It was a good test for Mari and Holding

Steve Bould believed Monday night’s Premier League 2 defeat to Chelsea was a good experience for Pablo Mari and Rob Holding, who both featured for our under-23s.

The defenders played the entirety of the first half to gain some valuable game time, before being integrated into the first-team squad.

We spoke to our under-23s’ head coach at full-time and this is what he said:

on the performance…

I thought the performance was really really good, especially in the second half. I think they edged the first half they had a bit more of the ball and we struggled a little bit to retain it. In the second half, the boys have done everything that we’ve asked of them and I couldn’t ask of any more from them apart from scoring another goal.

on the differences from the Liverpool defeat…

It was very pleasing and I think the nice thing was that in the second half we had to take the two first-team boys off and it was a big ask for the two lads to replace them but we upped the game a little bit. I think we kept more of the ball in the second half and managed to get in and Flo maybe could have scored another two goals. I always say it’s not always about the result, sometimes it is, but as you can hear them (Chelsea), singing and shouting it does;t help things. Our performance was what we asked from them week in, week out and I thought it was very good tonight.

on Pablo Mari and Rob Holding’s impact…

It’s fabulous for the young players to play alongside them. It’s a learning programme and we don’t very often get older boys and men playing with us, and that’s how I learned my game when I was a kid so it’s something we miss out on lots of times. It was actually a very good game for them to come in to. I think Chelsea’s striker is a good player and they have good players all over the park so it was a good test for them and a good 45 minutes. I’m sure they will go on and use that for first team value.

on Trae Coyle playing a full 90 minutes…

I was really pleased with Trae’s performance and it was one of his better games. He actually gave their fullback one or two problems and that’s what we’re expecting more of from Trae, he’s got ability and he just needs to believe in himself a little bit more.

By Sam Cox

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